Lacrosse is a contact team sport which utilizes a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick. Lacrosse can be played by both men and women and all versions of the game require players to wear padding such as shoulder pads, gloves, helmets, elbow pads, cup, and sometimes rib guards. Some players wear protective face masks. The objective of the game is for a player to score by shooting the ball into an opponent's goal. The lacrosse stick is used to catch, carry, and pass the ball. Other players must keep the opposing team from scoring and attempt to gain the ball through the use of stick checking or poke checking (a defensive technique where a player uses his stick to stop an opposing player), body contact or positioning.
Lacrosse can be played by a team of varying numbers, each carrying a lacrosse stick. Most teams have at least one attack or attack man, one defender or defenseman and at least one midfielder. Attackers are players who are located on the offensive side of the field and focus on scoring. Defenders are players who stay on the defensive side of the field. Defenders focus on blocking an opponent's shot and work in conjunction with their team goalie. Midfielders are the players who play offense and defense and must be able to score against a goalie and run back to the middle of the field to play defense. There is one goalie for each team. The goalie is located in and outside the goal, with a main purpose of trying to stop opponents from scoring.
Regardless of position, all lacrosse players must be proficient in the art of feeding. Feeding is where a player “feeds,” or passes the ball to, an attacker for a score, i.e., gets the lacrosse ball to the attacker. It is a type of assist for another player to score a goal. In addition, all players must learn how to hurl the lacrosse ball at varying speeds, distances and heights both for shots on goal and passes across the field. Thus, there exists a need for a practice device which can assist lacrosse players in becoming more effective feeders, scorers, and hurlers of lacrosse balls against other lacrosse players and the goalie, and which teaches players to work on the accuracy long clearing passes and how to take shots on goal at varying heights.